August
12
2007
You Must Be Born Again
Speaker: Dr. S.J. Bowers Pastor EMBC
Title: You must be born again : Text: John 3:1-17
Introduction:
–Our text today paint a very surprising picture for those of us who are willing to examine it closely.
–It is a picture of a man who had dedicated his life to studying the word of God.
–He had dedicated his life to teaching the word of God.
–He was a man who knew the importance of getting to know the ways of God.
–This man named Nicodemus had done all of these things and he even understood something that most of his fellow Pharisees did not understand.
–He understood that Jesus had to be doing the works of God and he came to tell him that.
–Yet with all of that going for him when he came to Jesus and made that most complimentary statement to Jesus, saying to Him “you must be from God..”
–Jesus promptly rebukes him with the declaration “you must be born again”.
–How strange is that statement to a man who it seems had gotten everything right about God?
–The one thing that Nicodemus didn’t know is the one thing that Jesus brought to his attention.
–No matter how much you have going for yourself you cannot enter God’s Kingdom without God’s Spirit.
–Receiving God’s Spirit is called the New Birth.
–You must be born again. That was Jesus’ message to Nicodemus and to the world. Jesus explained why the new birth is a necessity
–So let us turn to the text so that we might discover the necessity of the New Birth
If we listen to Jesus, we will discover;
I. The necessity of the new birth John 3:3-6
II. The indication of the new birth John 3:7-8
III. The understanding of the new birth John 3:9-15
IV. The purpose of the new birth John 3:16-17